■ DIPLOMACY
MOFA lauds Japan
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) praised Japan yesterday for shrugging off Beijing's request that Tokyo deny entry to Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama. MOFA deputy spokeswoman Phoebe Yeh (葉非比) made the remarks in response to a report in the Sing Tao Daily, a Hong Kong-based newspaper, which said that the Dalai Lama would visit Japan at the invitation of local religious groups. The newspaper said Beijing had asked Japan not to grant the spiritual leader entry because he is a separatist. Japan rejected Beijing's request. "We admire Japan for its moral courage in turning down China's unreasonable demand," Yeh said. "Like other Western countries, Japan advocates democracy, freedom and human rights. There is no reason Japan should yield to Chinese pressure."
PHOTO: LIAO HSUEH-RU, TAIPEI TIMES
■ DEFENSE
MND lowers bar on health
The Ministry of National Defense said yesterday it would relax its health exam standards in order to recruit an additional 5,000 soldiers in the near future. Deputy Minister of National Defense Lin Yu-bao (林於豹) said the plan was not complete but that extra recruits were needed to fill vacancies. Lin made the remarks during the legislature's National Defense Committee meeting yesterday morning in response to a question by Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Lin Yu-fang (林郁芳). Lin Yu-fang was worried that relaxing the standards would have a negative impact on national defense. Lin Yu-bao said today's wars have gradually become "high-tech wars," which means that a real battle does not necessarily have to involve soldiers confronting soldiers on the battlefield.
■ CULTURE
NYC orchestra to visit
The New York Philharmonic announced plans on Wednesday to tour Taiwan and China, but did not confirm media reports that the US' oldest symphony orchestra would also perform in North Korea. In Taiwan, the orchestra will play in Taipei and Kaohsiung in February. The New York Times reported that the New York Philharmonic would likely visit North Korea. "The Philharmonic has a significant record of touring Asia, but this will be our most substantial tour of the region in our history," said Zarin Mehta, the orchestra's president and executive director. The orchestra was founded in 1842 by local musicians and plays some 180 concerts a year. The New York Philharmonic gave its 14,000th concert in late 2004.
■ CRIME
Web `assassin' questioned
Taipei police yesterday were questioning a man over an alleged Internet threat to assassinate President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁). Officers said the man, identified by his surname, Dai (戴), had left a message on an Internet bulletin board saying that he would assassinate the president on his way to work yesterday morning. He also invited other users who hate the president to join him. The message "warned" the public to stay away from the presidential residence during the "assassination period" to avoid being accidentally shot by machine gun. Police discovered that Dai had checked into a hotel room in Taipei's Zhongzheng District on Wednesday night. Dai was picked up near the presidential residence yesterday morning and immediately taken to a police station, where officers discovered he only had a few flags in his possession. He was released but police referred the case to the Taipei District Prosecutors' Office on charges of plotting to kill and blackmail.
DEEPER REVIEW: After receiving 19 hospital reports of suspected food poisoning, the Taipei Department of Health applied for an epidemiological investigation A buffet restaurant in Taipei’s Xinyi District (信義) is to be fined NT$3 million (US$91,233) after it remained opened despite an order to suspend operations following reports that 32 people had been treated for suspected food poisoning, the Taipei Department of Health said yesterday. The health department said it on Tuesday received reports from hospitals of people who had suspected food poisoning symptoms, including nausea, vomiting, stomach pain and diarrhea, after they ate at an INPARADISE (饗饗) branch in Breeze Xinyi on Sunday and Monday. As more than six people who ate at the restaurant sought medical treatment, the department ordered the
Taiwan’s population last year shrank further and births continued to decline to a yearly low, the Ministry of the Interior announced today. The ministry published the 2024 population demographics statistics, highlighting record lows in births and bringing attention to Taiwan’s aging population. The nation’s population last year stood at 23,400,220, a decrease of 20,222 individuals compared to 2023. Last year, there were 134,856 births, representing a crude birth rate of 5.76 per 1,000 people, a slight decline from 2023’s 135,571 births and 5.81 crude birth rate. This decrease of 715 births resulted in a new record low per the ministry’s data. Since 2016, which saw
A strong continental cold air mass and abundant moisture bringing snow to mountains 3,000m and higher over the past few days are a reminder that more than 60 years ago Taiwan had an outdoor ski resort that gradually disappeared in part due to climate change. On Oct. 24, 2021, the National Development Council posted a series of photographs on Facebook recounting the days when Taiwan had a ski resort on Hehuanshan (合歡山) in Nantou County. More than 60 years ago, when developing a branch of the Central Cross-Island Highway, the government discovered that Hehuanshan, with an elevation of more than 3,100m,
SECURITY: To protect the nation’s Internet cables, the navy should use buoys marking waters within 50m of them as a restricted zone, a former navy squadron commander said A Chinese cargo ship repeatedly intruded into Taiwan’s contiguous and sovereign waters for three months before allegedly damaging an undersea Internet cable off Kaohsiung, a Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times) investigation revealed. Using publicly available information, the Liberty Times was able to reconstruct the Shunxing-39’s movements near Taiwan since Double Ten National Day last year. Taiwanese officials did not respond to the freighter’s intrusions until Friday last week, when the ship, registered in Cameroon and Tanzania, turned off its automatic identification system shortly before damage was inflicted to a key cable linking Taiwan to the rest of
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